Starfleet One
by infantilejoy
Summary: One year after "Star Trek: Beyond," James Tiberius Kirk, captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise, has to choose between the love he's always wanted and the ship and crew he's always loved.
1. Chapter 1

Awakening with a jolt at the annoyance of an alarm clock on the nearby bedside table, James Kirk wipes his eyes sleepily and sits up. He looks to his left at the sleeping, ever-cold lump swaddled in a dozen blankets and smiles. He stands to his feet, groggily replacing his clothes and finger-brushing his dirty blond hair out of his ice-blue eyes. Gathering what little belongings he brought to the room only hours ago, he stops to brush his fingers lovingly down his lover's cheek. The gesture awakens the sensitive woman, and her eyes open slowly.

"Where are you going?" She asks tiredly.

"It's dawn, Alana. I have to get to the deck."

She sighs and rests her eyes, closing them. "Already?"

A small grin appears on his face. "Yeah, I know. But I'm not the one making the rules." He leans down to give her forehead a light kiss and she grabs his hand, kissing his knuckles. "I'll see you at nine." He turns to leave.

"James?" She calls out suddenly, and he turns, seeing that she has sat up. "Before you go, promise me we won't keep this a secret forever?"

"Sure." He offers her a lopsided smile and nods a goodbye as he opens the door, letting in the bright hallway light.

As his eyes adjust to the new lighting, James thinks about the flippant reply he gave Alana. He reaches up to scratch his face and notices there is a prickly stubble that's appeared upon his jawline. Entering the deck, he sets his belongings in one of the small lockers near the door, and walks in, making a beeline for his chair.

"Good morning, Captain," greets Chekov, who sits in front of a screen full of stars.

"Morning, Mister Chekov. Any news for me?"

"Not at the moment, sir, no."

"Then we're off to a great start." James smiles at the young Russian man, who turns back around in his seat to study coordinates listed on the holographic ledge below the screen.

"Actually, Captain, we're having trouble down here," comes Scotty's voice from a small speaker on James's chair.

"Already? Scotty, it's six in the morning. Is it something you and Kevin can't fix?"

"What, you don't want to spend a little quality time with us, Captain?" Comes the usual snarky reply.

Blowing air through his nostrils in an exasperated manner, James stands up. "I'll be down momentarily." James turns to face his trusted crew member, Sulu. "You have the chair, but if anything happens, I'm the one calling the shots."

"Always a pleasure in the morning, aren't you, Captain?" Sulu replies.

"Mister Spock, you're with me."

The two walk in silence down to the bridge until Spock, looking rarely intrigued, turns his head to look at his captain.

"Forgive me, Captain, if I overstep my analyzation boundaries, but are you in a romantic, possibly sexual, relationship at the moment?"

James snaps his head over to look at Spock. "No, are you crazy?" He asks incredulously. "What gives it away?"

Spock looks down, seemingly out of humor, but his unreadable expression stays. "I could not help but notice that you have not shaved in a while, your hair is often unkempt, you're later than usual to meet us at the deck, and when I came to give you those papers you asked me to look over this morning, you were not in your living quarters. It is most unlike you."

"Damn. I was hoping no one had noticed."

"Is that... Sarcasm, Captain?"

"More or less." The pair stops walking, and James's voice becomes serious. "I would like for you to keep this under wraps. I could lose my flying rights if I'm found out, and I currently have the best crew and ship I could ask for. I don't want to risk that."

"If I'm correct, you are already 'risking it,' Captain."

"Mister Spock," comes the warning tone of voice James has switched to.

"I apologize, Captain. It is in my nature to take into account-"

Spock is cut short as a passing Doctor McCoy calls out James's nickname.

"Morning, Jim."

"Captain," Spock corrects quietly, without any notice from Bones or James.

"Where are you two off to?"

"Ah, Scotty said something went wrong down at the bridge," James answers.

"Well, I'll join you. The baby can be delivered later." Bones takes one look at a surprised James and taken-aback Spock, and explains. "Joking, boys, take it easy." He then folds his arms. "Say, ah, Jim, haven't you got a razor somewhere?" He asks, noticing the fine stubble on James's face. The three continue walking.

Spock looks at James precariously.

"Go ahead. I guess he should know, too," James says, looking down at his shoes.

"What is it, Spock?"

"He is involved in a romantic, perhaps sexual, relationship with one of our crewmates."

"My God, Jim, are you crazy? Couldn't you lose your privileges if someone found out?"

"You know, I wasn't exactly planning on having people find out." James shoots Spock a look.

"Well, don't be calling me when she tells you she's pregnant, because I don't plan on delivering a baby on this ship anytime soon."

"Why do you use the 'she' pronoun, Doctor? Was there something I missed?" Spock asks, feeling rather disappointed that he might have missed a crucial piece of information.

"Oh, it's just a guess, Mister Spock." Bones slips James a sly smirk, making the captain blush out of embarrassment.

The trio enters the doors to the bridge, and a frantic Scotty comes to meet them.

"Great Scot, Captain, what took you so long? The generator's been on the fritz all mornin'!"

"And, now I'm leaving. It was nice to see you, Captain," Bones says sarcastically. "Mister Spock," he says, acknowledging the Vulcan with a nod of his head.

"What? You come back here! We need all the help we can get, lad!" Scotty calls after the leaving man.

"I'm a doctor, not an engineer, Mister Scotty!"


	2. Chapter 2

After finding and repairing a shot wire in the generator, Spock and James had returned to the deck without another mention of James's predicament, to his relief.

Back at the deck, James presses a black button on his armrest and speaks into a vent-like microphone.

"This is Captain James T. Kirk, reminding you that it is approximately nine o' clock back in Yorktown. All crew members ranking Level Three or lower have five minutes to report to your assigned stations."

Alana, in her quarters, has just finished combing her dark hair into the uniform ponytail when she hears the announcement. She smiles at James's voice and begins the walk to her place on the deck, next to Sulu. Arriving just as the allotted five minutes of quarters-to-stations travel was up, she slides into her seat, yellow uniform dress flying.

"Good morning, Mister Sulu," she greets the man to her left.

"It is indeed, Lieutenant Crane. Glad you made it in time. Captain's been in a bit of a mood this morning."

"Oh, he has?" She asks warily, not knowing anything about it.

"Ever since he and Spock left to help Scotty down at the bridge, he's seemed... Off."

"I noticed he hasn't said much." Alana looks behind her and sees James, slouched in his chair, bent elbow on armrest, chin on fist. His irises look a stormy gray instead of their usual sky blue.

"He was talkative with Chekov-"

"Prepare to land, Mister Sulu," calls James suddenly, sitting up in his chair.

Alana looks up at the primary window, seeing a dusty-looking tan planet growing large as the USS Enterprise approaches it.

"Captain, this planet was not-"

"I said, _prepare to land_ , Mister Sulu."

"Yes, Captain." Sulu presses a button and pulls a gray lever down slowly, causing the ship to lower its nose into a straight trajectory towards the planet.

"Lieutenant Uhura, prepare for atmospheric pressure."

"Captain-" Uhura responds warily.

"We are landing this ship," he says sternly. "Prepare for atmospheric pressure, Lieutenant."

"Yes, Captain," she says, her voice soft. She begins to tap whitish buttons above her head.

The Enterprise pulls through the planet's atmosphere cleanly, landing so the edge of the saucer is 150 yards before a cliff. James orders all crew to do as they please, but to stay within five miles of the Enterprise.

He exits the ship, Alana running after him.

"James, what is this?"

"Look, Alana, the Enterprise received a distress call, but I didn't want anyone to get scared. Plus, we're supposed to be headed for a completely different system. The commander in Yorktown can't know."

"Oh, just like she can't know about _us_?"

"Yes, just like that!" He says, still walking. "Why are you getting mad at me?"

Alana jogs up to catch his shoulder and turn him around to face her. "When will you stop keeping secrets from everyone, Kirk? You promised we wouldn't."

"Soon." He turns back around and keeps walking.

"Where are you going?"

"To scan the area and devise a plan to help whoever the hell sent that call."

"Alone?"

He keeps walking without looking at her. "Send McCoy along, will you? In case someone's hurt."

She stands there, watching him walk off, for a while before she goes back up into the Enterprise.

Entering the bright white, sterile sick bay, she finds Bones McCoy restocking a cabinet.

"Hey, Lieutenant, can you hand me that syringe over there?" He calls, seeing Alana approaching him out of the corner of his eye.

She picks up the blue syringe by its body, careful not to touch the needle. She hands it to him gingerly.

"Thanks. What do you need?"

"Captain Kirk walked off to scan the area, and-"

"Scan the area? Why?"

"No one's supposed to know, but he got a distress call."

"Why would he tell you, then?"

She blushes, never having thought that saying this would blow their cover.

He looks over, smiling. "I'm just kidding. I know about you."

"You _what_?"

"Yeah. Spock told me, and James told Spock. Well, I take that back." He places a glass of tongue depressors in the cabinet and slides the door shut. "Spock probably analyzed it, or whatever he does."

She gets a sick feeling inside, knowing now that she was wrong to yell at him earlier. She had no idea that a few people knew. "Oh. Well, anyways, he wants you to go with him, in case someone's hurt."

"Aren't you going?"

"No. We had a little fight. It's nothing, though."

"Hm. Well, I'll page him and I'll catch up. Thanks for letting me know." He pulls out a communicator from his pocket and, grabbing a white canvas bag, jogs out of the sick bay towards the loading platform.

Alana frowns and makes her way back to her quarters for some much-needed alone time.

Having finally caught up to James, Bones runs a hand through his hair, splaying it.

"Jim, Alana told me we got a distress call. Why didn't you tell anyone?"

"I didn't want-"

"Commander to know?"

"Anyone to freak out," he finishes, shooting the doctor a look.

"Are you sick? You've been in a shitty mood all morning. I mean, I know you had a little spat with-"

James's eyebrows furrow. "She told you? Why would-" Suddenly his handheld scanner beeps, cutting him off. "Hold on." His eyebrows relax, softening his expression.

"What'd you find?"

Both of them look at the scanner, which shows dozens of red dots right in front of the pair. They look up to find themselves approaching the cliff's edge. They glance at each other and look over the edge, only to see a camp of an unknown people- surrounded by Klingon warlords.


	3. Chapter 3

Contains sexual content. Read at your own risk.

Alana looks up sharply from her bed when her door suddenly slides open.

"Alana? I need to talk to you," calls Jim, padding in tenderly, hands in pockets.

She sits up, used to him coming in without warning, the once-tidy blankets beneath her crinkling softly. "You too."

The door slides shut again and he settles down to her right, on his usual side of the bed.

"I'm sorry, James. I didn't know that some people already knew about our relationship," she says softly.

All thoughts of his urgent need to talk with her about other matters are forgotten. "Oh, Bones and Spock? Well, that wasn't really my intention. Spock was playing Sherlock."

They laugh lightly and Jim's fingers toy with an edge of the topmost blanket.

A sudden thought crosses both of their minds and no sooner do they glance at each other than they begin to remove their own clothing.

He slips his shirt over his head and drops it on the dark carpet along with the rest of his clothing, looking over at the precise moment her slender fingers allow a silky black bra to fall. He snakes his arms around her waist and moves her gently to the nearby wall, setting her back against it. He brings his face close to hers, touching their noses.

She looks up into his blue eyes, giving an almost scared look, but she stands with unmistakeable confidence.

He kisses her lips tenderly, slowly biting her lower lip before letting go and allowing a sly smile to appear on his own lips.

"You tease," she mumbles.

His hands travel farther up her back to her shoulders, his left knee coming up to support her as he lifts her off her feet.

In one swift motion he enters her, and she lets out a soft sigh of slight pain before closing her eyes.

Careful not to rock up against the wall, Jim quickly flips her around and they collapse on the bed, still going.

They complete the quiet act within an hour, knowing that someone could be looking for either of them soon.

Having finally consummated their relationship, Alana looks over at Jim, the rate of their rising and falling chests slowing.

He leans over, brushes the wispy dark hair out of her face, and kisses her left cheek. They lie in silence for no longer than three minutes before he speaks up.

"I have to ask a favor of you."

"What is it?" She reaches over to stroke his messy hair.

"Are you good at impersonations?"

Her hand drops and her eyes close briefly. "Oh, God."

"No, don't check out on me. It's about the distress call. There's a camp of aboriginal people, surrounded by-

"Klingons. I know."

His eyebrows furrow.

"The message was in Vulcan."

"Did Spock read it to you?" He asks, concerned that his Vulcan crew member might have spread the news.

"I took Vulcan and Klingon language classes at the Academy with Uhura. And, no, I didn't tell anyone," she mentions, anticipating his next question.

"Knowing those languages might just help your impersonation."

"Should I choose to accept, you mean. I never agreed to this, Kirk." She pushes herself away from him the slightest bit.

"Alana, please. You're the only woman I would trust with this job." He tugs on a lock of dark hair gently as he runs his fingers over it. "And I love you."

She lifts her fallen gaze and looks into his eyes. She knows he didn't say that to make her give in; he means it. Alana sighs, knowing that what he's about to have her do could get her killed. But she would give it all for him, her captain, her lover, her James Tiberius Kirk.

"What do you need me to do?"


End file.
